Infection and Immunity

2004-2005

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Research Overview | Research Divisions | Online Resources | Collaborative Research

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Cancer & Haematology | Molecular Genetics of Cancer | Immunology | Infection & Immunity
Autoimmunity & Transplantion | Genetics & Bioinformatics | Structural Biology

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From left: Alan Cowman (Division Head), James Beeson, Brendan Crabb, Emanuela Handman & Louis Schofield.

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• Research Focus
• Overview
• Laboratories
  • Cowman Lab
  • Crabb Lab
  • Handman Lab (Leishmania)
  • Schofield Lab
• Email the Infection & Immunity Division

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Research Focus

• Parasite Cell Biology
• Acquired Immunity
• Functional Genomics
• Pathogenesis

Overview

The goal of the Division is to improve methods of preventing and treating two of the world’s most devastating parasitic diseases, malaria and leishmaniasis. Malaria is responsible for over 2 million deaths per annum, mostly children, whilst 2 million new cases of leishmaniasis occur each year. The drugs used to treat malaria and leishmaniasis are increasingly ineffective due to the development of resistance by these parasites. It is therefore a priority to develop new treatments for both malaria and leishmaniasis in order to decrease the global burden of mortality and morbidity in human populations. The development of vaccines and novel chemotherapeutics depends upon understanding the basic mechanisms of immunity, cell biology and genetics, since these determine the outcome of the interaction between the host and the invasive organisms.

When malaria parasites infect a person, they invade and live inside erythrocytes in the blood where they remodel the host cell to allow access to nutrients necessary for survival. The parasites export proteins onto the surface of the infected cell for evasion and modulation of host immune responses. We have discovered the address code that marks these proteins for export into the infected erythrocyte allowing identification of all exported proteins. The mode of protein export seems unique to malaria parasites raising the possibility of developing novel strategies to interfere with multiple aspects of parasite development through a single target. In leishmaniasis, we have identified proteins critical for parasite survival as potential novel drug targets.

Other highlights in malaria include identification of genes within the Natural Killer Complex (NKC) that are important in the host responses to malaria in mouse models. Because the NKC is conserved among species these findings are highly relevant to the aetiology of human malaria. In leishmaniasis, the discovery of genes controlling tissue repair as a major contributor to severity of disease is opening a new area of investigation into the genetics of disease susceptibility.